Relationships between recent land-use change and legal land-use classification in the area of greater Sapporo [Japan]

Recent land-use changes in expanding urban areas were studied by using two land-use area files (1976 file and 1991 file) of the Digital National Land Information in Japan. The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship of increases and decreases in the use of four land types (agricultural land, urban land, barren land, natural land) to the legal land-use classification. The areas studied were seven municipalities in the area of greater Sapporo (Sapporo City, Ebetsu City, Chitose City, Eniwa City, Kita-Hiroshima City, Ishikari City, Tobetsu. Town). Urban land-use significantly increased in all of the seven study areas, while the use of agricultural and natural land decreased in varying degrees in the study areas: a notable decrease in agricultural land-use in four municipalities (Sapporo City, Ebetsu City, Eniwa City and Ishikari City), a notable decrease in the use of natural land (mainly forest land) in two municipalities (Chitose City and Tobetsu Town), and a similar degree of decrease in the use of agricultural and natural land in Kita-Hiroshima City. The area of barren land increased in three municipalities (Sapporo City, Kita-Hiroshima City and Ishikari City) and decreased in the other four municipalities. The area of land-use change was greatest in Sapporo City, followed by Ishikari City, chitose City and Ebetsu City. In terms of population, the area of land-use change was greatest in Ishikari City. In terms of legal land-use classification, land-use change was greatest in the urbanization-promotion area of five municipalities (Sapporo City, Ebetsu City, Eniwa City, Kita-Hiroshima City and Ishikari City), while the greatest changes in land-use in tobetsu Town and chitose City were in the agricultural land zone and in the area of other land, respectively. In many of the municipalities, the second-greatest area of land-use change was in the white zone of the agriculture-promotion area